WHEN Jesus reached the
place of execution, he was offered, as was usual, a spiced wine,782782Matt., xxvii., 34. Mark describes it exactly (xv., 23) as
οἶνος ἐσμυρνισμένος.
Cf. Acta Fructuosi Tarraconensis, where it is related of the martyrs, “Cum multi ex fraterna caritate iis offerent, uti conditi permixti
poculum sumerent,” &c. (c. iii., Ruinart., Acta Martyrum, Amstel., 1713, 220).
The merum conditum was given by the Christians to the confessors
tanquam
antidotum, that, by means of it, they might be less sensible of suffering
(Tertull. de Jejuniis, c. xii.). intended to
stupify the mind and deaden the pains of death. Oppressed with burning thirst,
he tasted of the wine; but when he perceived the stupifying drug, he refused to
drink, that he might die in full consciousness. Stripped of nearly all his
clothing,783783 John’s mention of the χιτὼν ἄρῥαφος is
confirmed by the statement of Isidore of Pelusium, that such garments were
peculiar to Galilee. Such a garment, though somewhat common in Galilee, and worn
by the lower classes, might have been a novelty to the Roman soldiers, and,
therefore, an object of value in their eyes. Isidore says,
“τίς δὲ ἀγνοεῖ
τὴν εὐτέλειαν τὴς ἑσθῆτος ἐκείνης, ᾗπερ οἱ πτωχοὶ κέχρηνται τῶν Γαλιλαίων, καθ᾽ οὓς καὶ μάλιστα τὸ
τοιοῦτο φιλεῖ γίνεςθαι ἱμάτιον, τέχνῃ τινί, ὡς αἱ στηθοδισμίδες, ἀνακρουσιὸν ὑφαινόμενον.” he was lifted up to the cross, bound, and then nailed to it by his
hands and feet.784784 There has been much dispute on this
point, and many have given it undue importance; the result of the most candid
inquiry is, that the feet were nailed as well as the hands. The most striking
confirmation is afforded by the fact that the fathers, writing at a time when
crucifixion was in use, speak of the piercing of Jesus’s feet as a matter of
course, without laying any stress upon it as necessary to fulfil Ps. xxii., 17.
We cannot enter into the in4uiry at length, but will only allude to the passage
in Tertullian so important in reference to this question (Adv. Marcion., iii.,
19). After citing “foderunt manus meas et pedes”
from the Psalm, he undertakes to show that it was fulfilled in the crucifixion
of Christ. The words immediately following, “quae proprie atrocitas crucis,” can mean nothing else
than that it was the piercing of the hands and feet which, on the whole, made
this punishment of death so terrible. He then speaks of the apices crucis as
belonging to the cross in general, not Christ’s in particular. Further, he says
that the Psalm cannot be applied to any other that had died as a martyr among
the Jews; no man of God except Christ had suffered this mode of death, “qui solus a populo tam insigniter crucifixus est” (who suffered so marked a death by crucifixion—one otherwise unknown in the Old Testament—defining him, before all others,
and fixing him alone as the one to whom
the words of the Psalm could be applied). Cf. Hug’s Dissertation, before cited;
Hase’s Leben Jesu, 143. (The chief pain of this cruel death,
419according to a writer who lived while it was yet known and
used, consisted in the hanging of the body while the hands and feet were
nailed.)

783 John’s mention of the χιτὼν ἄρῥαφος is
confirmed by the statement of Isidore of Pelusium, that such garments were
peculiar to Galilee. Such a garment, though somewhat common in Galilee, and worn
by the lower classes, might have been a novelty to the Roman soldiers, and,
therefore, an object of value in their eyes. Isidore says,
“τίς δὲ ἀγνοεῖ
τὴν εὐτέλειαν τὴς ἑσθῆτος ἐκείνης, ᾗπερ οἱ πτωχοὶ κέχρηνται τῶν Γαλιλαίων, καθ᾽ οὓς καὶ μάλιστα τὸ
τοιοῦτο φιλεῖ γίνεςθαι ἱμάτιον, τέχνῃ τινί, ὡς αἱ στηθοδισμίδες, ἀνακρουσιὸν ὑφαινόμενον.”

784 There has been much dispute on this
point, and many have given it undue importance; the result of the most candid
inquiry is, that the feet were nailed as well as the hands. The most striking
confirmation is afforded by the fact that the fathers, writing at a time when
crucifixion was in use, speak of the piercing of Jesus’s feet as a matter of
course, without laying any stress upon it as necessary to fulfil Ps. xxii., 17.
We cannot enter into the in4uiry at length, but will only allude to the passage
in Tertullian so important in reference to this question (Adv. Marcion., iii.,
19). After citing “foderunt manus meas et pedes”
from the Psalm, he undertakes to show that it was fulfilled in the crucifixion
of Christ. The words immediately following, “quae proprie atrocitas crucis,” can mean nothing else
than that it was the piercing of the hands and feet which, on the whole, made
this punishment of death so terrible. He then speaks of the apices crucis as
belonging to the cross in general, not Christ’s in particular. Further, he says
that the Psalm cannot be applied to any other that had died as a martyr among
the Jews; no man of God except Christ had suffered this mode of death, “qui solus a populo tam insigniter crucifixus est” (who suffered so marked a death by crucifixion—one otherwise unknown in the Old Testament—defining him, before all others,
and fixing him alone as the one to whom
the words of the Psalm could be applied). Cf. Hug’s Dissertation, before cited;
Hase’s Leben Jesu, 143.